Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

Closing the Economic Gap to End Poverty in Hungary

Poverty in Hungary
As poverty in Hungary continues to increase, aid from several countries has been provided to the struggling European nation. As of 2015, Hungary suffers from the highest child poverty rate in the European Union.

One in three children lives in a home detrimental to their health with leaking roofs, mold, lack of an indoor toilet, and other sources of health risk. Data from the same year shows over 35 percent of Hungarian families now live below the poverty line.

For those living under these circumstances, day-to-day reality can be bleak. Increased rates of child starvation when not in school, overcrowded flats, and homes lacking insulation are just a few struggles of daily life which confront impoverished Hungarian families.

These devastating circumstances combined with economic pressures have motivated Hungarian youth to leave for work abroad — producing a rapidly aging population threatening to present welfare issues.

In efforts to make international relief funds as effective as possible, a new series of reports from the World Bank offers a promising method for ensuring their strategic use.

European Union funding and the commission of Hungary’s Ministry of Human Capacities have produced the Promoting Inclusive Growth in Hungary Advisory Service Activity, a project which has provided the framework for the World Bank reports.

These reports have identified a need for concrete initiatives, coordination between local and national level efforts, and targeted investments in order to more successfully combat poverty in Hungary.

Working with communities to address the needs specific to local areas, in addition to learning from positive and negative examples of past initiatives, is hoped to improve the efficacy of targeting poverty in the country.

In counteracting the departure of young workers, the reports have identified a particular need for emphasis on better skill development and increased job prospects. These measures will be instrumental in combating a simultaneously aging and declining population.

An additional factor addressed by the reports is the social exclusion faced by impoverished Hungarian families. This exclusion is often accompanied by a lack of access to the job skills training needed by young Hungarians for the transition from school to the workplace.

Efforts to close the economic gap between Hungary’s advantaged and disadvantaged populations must also include attention to this accompanying social gap. The World Bank reports identifying investment in implementing social inclusion activities as a mechanism for accomplishing this.

In addition, there lacks institutional coordination in implementing these programs, which could be improved by streamlining the efforts of mayors and civil society.

With European Structural and Investment Funds providing Hungary with a 2014-2020 opportunity to invest in the socioeconomic incorporation of its disadvantaged families, the series of World Bank reports comes at a crucial time.

Equipped with these reports and a long-term investment framework, the nation stands to maximize its potential progress.

– Charlotte Bellomy

Photo: Flickr

The Impact of Drought in India

Drought in IndiaIndia is suffering from a heat wave that has caused temperatures to reach nearly 124 degrees Fahrenheit in some regions. This has caused a massive drought in India.

Although June marks the beginning of monsoon season, some experts believe the heavy rain will not alleviate India’s drought problem. The Central Water Commission recently reported that the country’s 91 water reservoirs are only at 17 percent of their total storage capacity.

The Indian government estimated over 300 million people to be effected by the drought. An estimated 370 people have died due to heat and water related issues within the country.

Drought is a major problem throughout the world with the worsening climate change conditions. Even developed countries like the U.S. suffer from water supply issues. However, in developing countries, drought can have a severe impact on an individual’s quality of life.

Small farmers are suffering major losses in their crops, leading to increased hunger and eventual starvation. Various areas in India rely on government shipments of water to survive. Consequently, some have uprooted their lives in rural regions to find more reliable water sources near cities. The drought in India has even led to increased suicide rates among crop growers.

Additionally, the heat wave and drought impact the ability of Indian children to attend school. Schools in some areas have been shut down due to excessive heat and lack of water.

The drought in India has also created political conflict within some states. In Punjab, there is a heated debate over the ownership of river water and the Satluj-Yamuna Link canal.

Nearly 1.3 billion people reside in India and require reliable and safe water to survive. Monsoon season may help the water crisis in the short run, but drought within the country is a common occurrence. Effective drought control efforts are a necessity to curb the issue.

So far, the government has placed restrictions on new sugar factories and sugarcane growth—both highly water-intensive. Additionally, water trains help provide water to drought-stricken areas.

Organizations like The Water Project and the Naam Foundation are attempting to raise awareness and assistance for drought-prone areas within the country. Responsible water usage and efforts to curb climate change are crucial to preventing severe drought in India and various other nations.

– Saroja Koneru

Photo: Youtube

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How Statelessness Affects Global Poverty

Statelessness

Statelessness is as much of an economic burden as it is a social and political one. According to a recent Foreign Policy article, statelessness results in “chronic economic instability” because it is often accompanied by joblessness and poverty.

According to the U.S. Department of State, a stateless person is someone who does not “enjoy” the rights of  “citizenship – the legal bond between a government and an individual – in any country.” In other words, these individuals do not have the same rights and opportunities as people who are recognized as citizens by the nations in which they live.

Although the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees counted 3.5 million stateless people in 2011, they estimated that the number could be as high as 12 million people. Foreign Policy reports that as many as 15 million people might be stateless today.

The Department of State notes that the causes of statelessness are diverse. They include failure to register newborns properly, birth to stateless parents, discrimination against minorities and traditional attitudes towards registration, to name a few.

Not only are stateless people denied government-issued identification, preventing them from acquiring formal labor jobs, but they are also subjects of social discrimination. These realities exclude them from even more employment opportunities, leads to fewer chances of regular employment and leaves stateless persons even more destitute.

Foreign Policy also reports that very little research exists about the effects of statelessness on economies. Some existing studies suggest that stateless persons have a negative economic impact on smaller nations in which they may make up a more significant percentage of the population. In this case, granting citizenship to stateless persons might actually improve these nations’ gross domestic product output.

Although stateless individuals can obtain cards which signify their status, only a few thousand people have been able to take advantage of this opportunity. One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations aims to provide everyone with legal identity by 2030, which will give people access to formal job markets and increase economic opportunities for individuals and nations.

The U.S. State Department suggests that universal birth registration and increasing access to naturalization and citizenship will help solve statelessness. As Foreign Policy points out, nations must want to increase inclusiveness with stateless persons and cease the use of political reasoning for ostracizing them before changes can occur.

Policies and prejudices might take many years to change, but the economic, social and humanitarian advantages of granting citizenship to stateless people are worth the fight.

– Addie Pazzynski

Photo: UNHCR

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Children in Crisis Areas Struggling with Education

Children in Crisis AreasAccording to a recent UNICEF report, approximately one in four children of school age resides in countries affected by war and humanitarian crises. There are around 462 million children in crisis areas whose education suffers, particularly areas in Syria and Eastern Ukraine.

Of this number, 75 million children are out-of-school, and the situation worsens for school-aged girls. UNICEF reports that over 63 million girls do not attend school and the numbers continue to rise. School-aged girls are in desperate need of a support system to improve their access to education and their chances at a successful future.

An education system not only provides basic instruction but also incorporates a daily schedule, food access and safe shelter for children during times of conflict. Conflicts in Eastern Ukraine have destroyed one out of every five schools and conflicts in Syria have rendered 6,000 schools unusable for education. The sites that can no longer be used as schools are now used as shelters for families or bases for armed forces.

As a result of the humanitarian crises in these areas, many children often receive no chance at an education. However, a recent emergency education fund will help to provide better education for the students facing difficulty, improving their family life and reactions to local conflicts as a result.

The World Humanitarian Summit was held in Istanbul in late May, where an emergency education fund called ‘Education Cannot Wait’ was proposed. The fund will provide for the educational needs of children who are suffering as a result of living in conflict zones.

Education Cannot Wait will attempt to raise $4 billion in the next five years for children in crisis areas struggling with education access and quality. This will support the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals which include a proposal for all school-aged children to have access to free and quality primary and secondary education by 2030. Improving the education systems for children in conflict zones will minimize or mitigate the issues of poverty on a larger scale.

– Amanda Panella

Photo: Flickr

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Refugees in Lebanon Benefit from Double-Shift Schools

Refugees In Lebanon
In the past years, Lebanon has accrued approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees, aside from the large population of Palestinian refugees already present. While the country has provided a hospitable environment for those restarting their lives, there are many issues with access to food, shelter and education for refugees in Lebanon.

Recently, Lebanon has created an education system called “double-shift” schools located primarily in Beirut. The double-shift model has two shifts of students attending class each day, allowing Lebanese schools to reach beyond the already-enrolled students. The new afternoon shift gives Syrian refugees, who are not yet at the same education level as their Lebanese peers, an opportunity to receive quality education.

Education has been made free for both Lebanese and Syrian students to eliminate any discrimination against refugee students. Lebanon is able to thank international aid for allowing them the ability to provide education to all students. These international donors have paid up to $600 for each student to attend a double-shift school.

Some schools are able to accommodate up to 700 refugee students in the afternoons. Among the 259 schools offering double-shift education, there are now 85,000 children enrolled.

The increase in provided education for refugees in Lebanon also increases the access to food that many children are often without. The U.N. World Food Program has begun providing food access in schools for up to 10,000 children. The refugee children are provided with a snack, fruit and a box of either milk or juice when attending class. With access to regular meals and education, refugee students are able to pursue many of the same opportunities as their peers.

Though Syrian refugees have been unable to pursue sufficient education after being displaced, efforts are being taken to improve these issues largely through international aid. Providing basics such as food and education for refugees improves the ability to live normal lives for many of the children.

– Amanda Panella

Photo: Flickr

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Poverty Stoplight Puts Poverty in the Spotlight

Poverty StoplightFundación Paraguaya has developed a tool to help families self-assess their poverty level and develop a personalized plan to improve their status.

Named the Poverty Stoplight, the initiative uses technology and various methodologies to create a custom poverty elimination plan, breaking down an overwhelming situation into smaller, more manageable problems and putting families in charge of their situation.

First, families take an online visual survey to determine their level of poverty. They are assessed on six different groups of poverty indicators: Income and Employment, Health and Environment, Housing and Infrastructure, Education and Culture, Organization and Participation and Interiority and Motivational.

Through a technology software developed by Hewlet Packard, each family receives 50 poverty indicators of red, yellow or green (red = extreme poverty, yellow = poverty, green = not living in poverty). For instance, fetching water from a contaminated river is an extreme poverty/red indicator, while having a water faucet in the house is a green/non-poverty indicator.

Trained members under Fundación Paraguaya work with each family based on their strengths and weaknesses in each category. The mentors make families aware of the tools they have within themselves that can be used to build a life out of poverty.

The Poverty Stoplight technology also provides information on neighbors who are not living in poverty and may be able to help them build homes and businesses.

The goal is to disrupt the typical cycles families in poverty go through, improving their status for their children and future generations.

The Paraguayan Government has been using the technology to refocus social workers on the main problems contributing to poverty.

A Google map overlay of Poverty Stoplight families highlights main poverty contributors, such as lack of proper vaccinations, clean water or proper sanitation. This overview allows social workers to provide the proper help to families in need and give them a jump start towards a better life.

Poverty Stoplight has had much success in helping impoverished families build a better life. In its first three years of operation, they have been able to help the welfare of around 18,000 families (92,000 people).

USAID has been a big contributor to the program, providing $500,000 in funding alongside other donors (who donated a total of $1 million). “This replicable project illustrates how relatively small amounts of foreign assistance can generate promising, tangible steps toward reducing poverty,” notes USAID.

Based upon a family’s motivation and the skills they have, a plan can be constructed to not only reduce their level of poverty but to eliminate the poverty cycle altogether. The customization of the project and effectiveness of the technology is what makes Poverty Stoplight as promising as it is.

– Casey Marx

Photo: Pixabay

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How Three Berliners Have Made Refugees Welcome

Refugees WelcomeRefugees Welcome, a non-profit organization founded by Germans Mareike Geiling, Jonas Kakoschke and Golde Ebding, provides an online platform for people to lend a room to an asylum-seeking refugee.

Often called the “Airbnb for refugees,” the organization aims to help refugees integrate into their new communities and create a more welcoming culture, according to The Independent.

Founded in Germany in 2014 in response to the growing refugee crisis, Refugees Welcome has quickly spread to eight other European countries and Canada. It is also supporting groups in more than 20 additional countries to set up the platform there. As of mid-July, Refugees Welcome has already placed 791 refugees in shared flats.

To offer a room to a refugee, individuals must register online through the organization’s website. There they fill out basic information such as how much space they have available and for how long. Similarly, refugees fill out a questionnaire to facilitate the matching process.

Once a match is made, the potential new roommates have the chance to meet up to see if they will be a good fit. Rent and utilities are paid for with micro-donations made to Refugees Welcome or by government programs.

According to The Independent, “Although people have offered the group entire empty houses and flats, Ms. Geiling said that would defeat one of the key aims of the initiative – to integrate.” Geiling further expressed that the program is “about living with people and getting to know them.”

In typical refugee situations, overwhelmed officials frequently place refugees in unorthodox living places such as old schools or shipping containers. In an NPR interview, Kakoschke notes that in these cases, refugees cannot work or learn the local language and often become depressed due to the stagnant nature of their living situation.

The Refugees Welcome website explains that through their program, refugees have an opportunity to learn the local language more quickly than they would in typical accommodations granted to refugees, and they can more easily acclimate themselves to their new country.”

The website adds, “You, on the other hand, will get to know a different culture and help a person in a difficult situation.”

– Laura Isaza

Photo: The Independent

 

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CCRO: Securing Communal Land Rights in Tanzania

Communal land rights
The Nature Conservancy, the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) and the Northern Tanzania Rangelands Initiative (NTRI) have teamed up to find a solution for tackling communal land rights in Tanzania. They have come up with an initiative called the Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO).

The Nature Conservancy states that the “CCRO is a form of customary land tenure within a larger village holding. This is an effective tool for strengthening community land rights and securing communal lands.”

However, UCRT has updated the concept of land grants to a more secure communal forum where the land can be used by the community for several other purposes such as farming, grazing and foresting to name a few.

Historically, assigning land rights has been a topic of major concern throughout the world. According to the Nature Conservancy, 2.5 billion people “depend on land and natural resources that are held, used or managed collectively.”

This number includes 370 million indigenous peoples. These communities live on half the world’s surface but have recognized rights to only 10 percent of the land.

When the people who need this land lack any legal right to them, they are extremely susceptible to losing access to the very thing they need to survive.

Edward Loure, a program director at UCRT, has been working to give the people of northern Tanzania a voice in the communal community and to help reduce conflict. The main solution that has been put into place is the CCRO.

In its first year, the CCROs secured approximately 22,000 hectares of collective lands. By the end of 2015, the amount had reached 90,000 hectares with 200,000 more hectares hoped to be acquired by the end of 2017.

According to UCRT, “most traditional pastoralist and hunter-gatherer communities are currently at great risk of loosing (sic) their land and resources due to progressive land encroachment and lack of representation in modern Tanzania.” UCRT works to empower these communities.

Land acquired by hunter-gatherers or pastoralists often seems to be unused because the group is moving with the seasons or with the grazing patterns of the herd. This makes them particularly vulnerable to losing their land.

CCRO not only promotes equality in these communities but it also protects the rights of vulnerable people “who share and depend on communal land and its resources.”

Another problem in Tanzania that the CCRO works on solving is wildlife migration as 60 percent of African wildlife drift throughout the year. To that end, the NTRI has partnered with the Community Wildlife Management Area (CWMA) to help set up the corridors where livestock is not allowed during migration seasons.

As a result, the villages who are CWMA compliant are in a good position to negotiate with tourists during the migration seasons.

Recently, Edward Loure won The Goldman Environmental Prize for 2016 for Africa. The prize honors grassroots heroes who “take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.”

The winners of the prize encourage sustainability, protect endangered ecosystems or species, combat destructive development and fight for environmental justice and policies.

– Rhonda Marrone

Photo: Flickr

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Project-Based Learning Successful in India

Project-based learningThe concept of project-based learning is powerful: actively working through a project allows students to show creativity and adaptability that may be lacking in students who are exposed only to a traditional classroom setting.

In India, project-based learning places students’ focus on solving issues of personal interest and mitigates the high pressure of traditional education.

Often, students are lectured by teachers for the sole purpose of learning information to perform well on standardized board exams. These tests have the potential to determine whether a student can attend top colleges, receive the best jobs and have an overall successful future.

This method of testing puts intense pressure on students to the point where cheating scandals occur every year. Numerous gadgets are marketed and sold, one example being small in-ear microphones that allow someone to remotely feed students test answers. According to the Los Angeles Times, there have even been reports of principals allowing students to cheat for a fee.

Students who perform well on these tests often go on to top colleges and careers. For everyone else, dropping out is a likely alternative. In India, 99 percent of kids are enrolled in primary schools, however, only 37 percent continue on to college.

To help change the status quo, the American School of Bombay (ASB) provides an alternative to traditional education in India. ASB believes that students learn and perform better when guided by internal motivation.

This international school located in Mumbai strives to be forward-thinking in terms of its less traditional teaching methods and strong ties to technology. The school believes that “teachers are most effective when they facilitate collaborative student learning through a wide variety of media-rich, interactive, and authentic learning experiences.”

In most schools across India, teachers provide lectures that do not deviate from a set curriculum. However at ASB, teachers are willing to let students take the lead on getting involved in projects that suit their personal interests and skills. One example of such a project is Plugged In, where tech-savvy students decided that they wanted to impart their knowledge to other children in Mumbai who did not have the same access to technology.

The ASB students did not know until arriving that the less fortunate school where they volunteered had no access to a computer, and they were forced to work around this obstacle.

At the end of the program, the volunteers were able to donate a computer to one student who had excelled, only to discover that his family could not afford electricity. This discovery, however, led the ASB students to embark on a new project of developing a power source that can be fueled by burning trash.

Receiving an education is an important hallmark of ascension out of poverty to the middle class. Project-based learning offers an alternative to students who drop out of school if they do not perform well on board exams.

Furthermore, many projects that students engage in offer new and inventive methods of reducing poverty. Project-based learning gives hands-on practice for improving the quality of life for people living in poverty.

It allows students to take a role of leadership and find what works for them to make use of their natural drive. When it comes to her students, one ASB teacher felt that it is important to “be their partner in learning and mentor them to a place where they can take off.”

– Nathaniel Siegel

Photo: Pixabay

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3 Charity Apps You Should Know About

Charity appsIn addition to advocacy and mobilizing governments to make a difference, donating to charities can have a major impact in the fight against global poverty and hunger. Here are three charity apps that are making a difference on a global scale:

  1. Share The Meal: Share The Meal is the world’s first charity app against global hunger. By donating only 50 cents you can feed one child in hunger for an entire day. Since its founding in 2014, Share The Meal has donated more than 7 million meals to children suffering from hunger. Share The Meal funds are distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger. Currently, Share The Meal funds are being used to feed Syrian refugee children in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley where 40 percent of the 360,000 Syrian refugees living in the Bekaa Valley are under the age of 12, according to data compiled by the UNHCR.
  2. Donate A Photo: Taking a picture can do more than just capture a moment, it can help people across the world. For every photo you share through the Donate a Photo charity app, Johnson & Johnson donates $1 to a cause of your choice. So far, over 1.3 million photos have been donated through the app. Causes vary from helping a newborn in Ethiopia survive through UNICEF, to giving a girl in Guatemala school supplies via Girl Up. Sharing photos not only helps to raise money but also spreads awareness. Sharing one photo per day is equivalent to donating $365 in a year.
  3. Charity Miles: Charity Miles allows you to raise money for every mile that you walk, run, or bike. The app uses your phone’s GPS and accelerometer to calculate the distance you traveled. Walkers and runners earn up to 25 cents per mile and bikers earn up to 10 cents per mile, according to Charity Miles’ Terms of Service. There are more than 30 different charities to earn donations on behalf, including The World Food Programme, Pencils of Promise, Girl Up and Every Mother Counts. Charity Miles’ goal is to raise $1 billion for charities by the end of 2016.

If you are looking for ways to donate funds, in addition to empowering others and spreading the word on poverty reduction, these three charity apps put the opportunity to make an impact directly at your fingertips.

– Kristyn Rohrer

Photo: Pixabay